About

The Los Angeles Media Reform Group is a volunteer-run project of California Common Cause that focuses on holding news accountable to the public interest and encouraging citizens to create their own media, and to be critical consumers of the mass media. Click here for contact information.

Organizational Statement

Why do we exist? We exist because want a media that truly serves the public interest—not the profits of a corporate parent. We exist because we want to foster independent media and breakup the stranglehold that media giants use to further business and/or political agendas while keeping citizens in the dark. We exist because we feel this fight will never be won one media reformer at a time. We exist because we want to meet people on the issues they care about and show them how media reform overlaps everything they care about.

What do we want to do about it? We are a conduit to local groups and community organizations which may not even be aware of how the media affect their issues. We want to be a catalyst for action. We want to forge relationships with local communities and leverage their existing support and activism network by enlisting their members to participate and advocate for media that is responsive to their issues and the greater public interest.

How do we intend to achieve our goals? We want to be an educational link/resource for local organizations that helps connect the dots between media reform and their issues. We see ourselves as making our activism more local by encouraging members to do their own media monitoring to increase public awareness about lack of local coverage on poverty, for example.

Advocacy

The LA Media Reform Group has submitted written testimony to a FCC Los Angeles hearings, circulated petitions supporting full funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and lobbied Congressional members on media reform.

Reports

In 2006, the LA Media Reform Group issued the report, “The Fear and Fluff of LA’s Nightly Local News,” detailing three months of news content monitoring. Click here to read the report.

Past Events

The 2008 Southern California Media Summit organized by the Los Angeles Media Reform Group was a huge success with over 150 attendees coming together to hear presentations by FCC Commissioner Adelstein, 12 panelists, and six breakout sessions. Topics discussed included digital inclusion; net neutrality; the impact of media consolidation on journalists, minorities and women; community organizing and media monitoring. Structured and billed as a starting point for an ongoing media reform movement in California, it brought together people from national groups like Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition with local organizations such as the South Asian Network, Angelenos for Equitable Access to Technology and two CWA locals.

The 2009 summit, “Local Media for Social Change” built on the momentum of the first summit with an impressive group of panelists and 15 breakout sessions. Click here to view the program. View footage from both events here.

VideoActive: Making Digital Video for Social Justice & Change: Join us for a hands-on workshop to teach community organizations and non-profits (in teams of 2 or 3 members each) how to make and distribute video shorts for social justice and progressive social change. The training will take place on November 7 and 14th at Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.

The LA Media Reform Group is working to preserve public access studios and stations in the Los Angeles Area. To learn more about what you can do to help, visit our Take Action page here.